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rowarrior Apr 10, 2010

I've read the library on dyes and colourants, and haven't seen anything on dip dying (though I did read a funny discussion of vegemite and marmite, both of which are revolting!)

Do any of you dip dye mohair to get a graduated kind of look?  If so, do you have any tips on the best way to go about this?  I have a visions of a bear that is very dark in colour at his feet, gradually working up in colour density to his head, which will be white (or 'natural'), although I might dye his ears the darkest colour too. 

I'm going to try this on some 12mm sparse natural Helmbold mohair, using some blue dye I got from Woodland Teddies at Hugglets (sorry I don't know the brand, it's just wee packets of powder suitable for dying mohair/silk/wool/cotton).  With the mohair being sparse, am I likely to see a marked difference in shade between the backing and the fur?  If so I'll probably need to get some denser fur.

TIA!

Katy

teeeej Apr 10, 2010

I have yet to dip dye myself. But I did find this page...

http://www.woodlandteddies.co.uk/effects.htm

karenaus Apr 11, 2010

sounds gorgeous if you can work it out, I guess there will be a lot of planning when dying the fabric, but the finished effect I am imagining would be lovely...

rowarrior Apr 12, 2010

Thanks guys, I have the info sheet from Woodland Teddies, which is on the site, but was just wondering if anyone had actually tried, especially with the sparser mohair, as the examples on the site are for dense mohair.

LisaAP Apr 14, 2010

Katy,

I have tried dip dyeing.  :)

The good news is that yes it works but there are some drawbacks that you need to be aware of. I was a complete newbie to dyeing and so was clueless at the time. You have to be careful when choosing the dye colour as some shades are produced by mixing different dyes together. I unfortunately chose to use a mixed colour dye and when dip dyeing the two colours separated slightly. This is fine if you are going for an odd two toned effect but not if you're looking for an even graduated colour. 

I'm not sure if this applies to all the different dye brands but it's worth checking before you get going. I use Jacquard acid dyes btw.

I hope this helps.

Regards

Lisa

rowarrior Apr 14, 2010

Cool, thanks for the tip Lisa.  It's a dark blue I'm starting with, but it seems I can get different levels of intensity depending on how long I leave bits in.  I think I'm going to be anally timing bits to get everything to come out even across the different parts!